When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, it seemed possible to many in the West that the United States would lead the world into a new era of universal liberal democracy. But in 2001, the September 11 attacks by the terrorist group al-Qaeda prompted the United States to begin wars in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. The mistakes made in Iraq damaged the reputation of the United States and weakened its ability to preserve stability in the world. Its intervention in Iraq also spurred the growth of the Islamic State, responsible for violent attacks in Iraq, Syria, and Africa.      

Violence, civil war, and persecution have led large numbers of refugees from the Middle East and Africa to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. Their arrival has provoked some resistance, and a number of ultranationalist groups have sprung up in the United States and Europe. The migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border is partly the result of violence and instability in a number of Latin American countries, such as civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala.        

Violence and human rights abuses have plagued Sub-Saharan Africa for decades. Many occur in the Global South, and critics have connected the economic problems there to the region’s history of imperial exploitation by countries in the Global North. One of these problems is the resource curse, or the difficulty of responding to domestic needs faced by resource-rich countries.           

All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/15-4-ongoing-problems-and-solutions            

Welcome to A Journey into Human History.    

This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story.       

The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.     

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction    

Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.